Strange looking D-8 on Ebay / Goodwill

[Steve Green]

Check out the bridges on this double eight. Is it some type of pre-hipshot design?

CLICK HERE FOR THE LISTING


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[Doug Beaumier]

That's a Framus, made in Germany. The bridges are original. I'm not sure what those levers are for... probably to raise the pitch of the strings...? or maybe not.

[chris ivey]

we've seen other framus' on here with those changers. couple different positions per string maybe. someone said they weren't very precise but i think they're cool. i'd like to have a single neck.

[Doug Beaumier]

There was a single neck for sale here on the forum quite a while ago.

[Jim Williams]

If you bid on this be aware of the 45 pound shipping charge. Goodwill does this on their site and their auctions apparently. I questioned them once about the over stated weight and they gave me some explanation, but I think it would be much fairer to their customers to state it shipping plus a flat handling fee. Obviously that guitar won't weigh anywhere near 45 pounds.

[Alan Brookes]

I've had a Framus like that for several years. The levers are to change the pitch of the strings and work like a Hipshot Trilogy, but a lot better. A great-sounding instrument, but very heavy. They also made three and four-neck versions, and on those every neck had its own multituning bridge with levers, which was a little overkill when you consider the number of permutations that gives you with 32 strings, each having three tuning positions per lever.
http://picosong.com/wmJU
If you want to know what it sounds like, I recorded the above tongue-in-cheek tune on it a few years back.

...someone said they weren't very precise...

That would probably have been Basil Henriques. He had the four-necked model for a while, but sold it because he reckoned it was much too heavy and the tuning wasn't precise enough for him.

[Paul Seager]

I have a single neck version. As Alan says, they're very heavy mainly due to a heavy wooden base and leg mounts which seem to be overly large.

It has a scale length of about 23 inches and string spacing is unusually wide at the nut and stays about the same width at the bridge. The levers on the bridge do actually work and have adjustable start-stop positions. One can expect a variation of between 1 and 3 semi-tones depending on the pitches and string gauges you use. You can do faux pedal steel but it takes some dexterity. Much better to set up subtle tuning variations like C6 -> E7; which might seem a little pointless if you have two necks!

The p'up on my Framus is probably its biggest failing; sounds like a weak single coil; it's not unpleasant but I'm torn between selling the guitar or change the p'up for a George L, or something very different to the horse-shoes on my Rickenbacker.

The D8's do turn up on eBay in Germany, probably 2-3 a year and sell for 300-400 US $. The single 8's are more common and tend to go for under $250

\ paul

[Alan Brookes]

Check out the bridges on this double eight. Is it some type of pre-hipshot design?
...

Here is a close-up of the tuning bridge on my Framus. It is much more sophisticated and durable than the Hipshot design, and preceded it by more than 20 years.

[Tom Breitenfeldt]

Hi everybody,
last week I bought a Framus SL-800/1 with a tuning changer system on ebay. This system is stunning and offers a lot of possibilities. This tuning is what I started to play around with:

(Forgot to register Em7, four bottom strings...)
I wonder if this is too much of a good thing and if there are any other tuning suggestions around. Any advice and tip appreciated!
Thank you,
Tom